68KingFisher

Looks to me like the black was shot using a hand held stencil of some sort....You can see the crisp edge of the stencil in places but theres enough overspray to suggest the stencil is held loosly against the lure body when the black was sprayed.

This is the technique I've used for years as a custom airbrush effect....works great for a rock or granite effect and works fine for crankbaits....you just need to play with air pressure, and the angle of the popsicle stick to get the right amount of paint build up on the stick which in turn gets you different splatter effects....Great trick. Another technique is the same as the toothbrush trick but use something more like those little metal handle acid brushes they sell at discount tool stores.....they throw a much different pattern then a toothbrush........or try cutting a few bristles from a straw floor broom and then tape them into a bundle and use that to splatter paint or as a custom made brush for misc effects.

Bob, in the "for what its worth dept", I've been using Createx on both tee shirts, leather jackets and hard objects(mostly helmets) since the mid 80's. I've seen the effects heat treating has on items vs not heat treating.....and from my experience the difference is night and day. Createx will wash out of a tee shirt the first time you pop it in the washing machine if it hasn't been heat set. But if heat set to proper temps the paint will stay for years.....I've got tee shirts with airbrushed artwork done with Createx thats 20+ years old and the paint still looks pretty good....a few that I never wore very often still look almost as good as the day they were airbrushed. Additionally when dealing with garments and ironing or, in the case of a shop situation we used heat presses to set the paint, you have heat and pressure involved, and its very obvious that pressure makes a big difference too....Now, when I hand iron a tee shirt I use as much bodyweight as my wifes ironing board can stand, and in some cases i'll iron against a solid table top so I can really bear down with as much pressure as I can.....this realy makes Createx adhere to the fabric longer. Now, my experience with Createx on hard surfaces applies mostly to my custom painted helmets I do for bikers and racers mostly....Although I now primarily use urethanes I've painted many, many helmets with Createx, and lots of plastic ball helmets for kids, and the same thing applies. If Createx is heat set to a good "HOT" temp, then it will adhere very well indeed. The reason I make that statement, is because I've sanded helmets painted with Createx thats been heated vs unheated and in every case it was more difficult to remove the heatset paint vs the non heatset paint. Now, having said that, I will follow up by saying that just lightly blowing a little warm air ain't gonna cut it in my opinion, and since I can't iron a helmet or crankbait using both heat and pressure, I just use a heat gun and I set it hot....not mild, not med, HOT.....med/bright glowing orange elements inside the heatgun and it will burn your skin if your not careful.....On a setting of 1-10 with 10 being the hottest I run at 6-7 most of the time...occasionally hotter if i'm working a bigger area. Now I kinda start with the gun held back aways and I paint with the heat...back and forth...never remaining in one spot for more then a second or so, and as my object begins to warm up i'll move the gun closer and speed up my movements so I don't blister the paint.....Once the item is "HOT" to the touch its done....and I do mean HOT. I've used this process on countless helmets, a few motorcycles and automobiles and couple of dirt track sprintcars, all painted with Createx, and Createx Auto Air....and yes, even a handfull of Crankbaits, and its worked very well for me. So do I think heat setting Createx vs not makes a difference......"Yes sir".....I certainly do.

BobP, pretty much nailed it......

Dura-block makes the best sanding blocks on the market......beyond that product its a crap shoot.....I've got auto painter buddies that have tried several models of their full sized paintguns and from what they said, those were just "OK"....and they preferred to use other brand guns....I know of nobody thats used the airbrush your asking about. I even did a little diggin around myself at Dura-blocks website but didn't find any good tech info on the airbrush, so your guess is as good as ours bud.....I wish I could be more help....Good luck.

Thats good to know....I've got two gals of liquid mask that I use for automotive stuff and wondered about using it to cover the eye's....I'll have to give it a try....thanks....But it also sounds like I need to go ahead and think about putting together an assortment of eye's if i'm gonna keep painting these thangs.

When repainting a customers old crankbaits, do you always remove and replace the eye's on those baits or do you cover the factory eye's with masking tape or a masking liquid, while your doing the repaint?? I just started doing a few repaints for some of my fishin buddies, and right off the bat, I feel like I need to purchase a wide assortment of 3D eye's to keep on hand......Standard eye's I can hand paint on...thats not a big deal...but the 3D eye's that alot of crankbaits have make me wonder how I should deal with those.......So I figured I'd ask you guys, " whats customary to do in this industry"??

Then your missing something......The only way bubbles can form in your paintcup is due to a clogged airbrush or loose parts that allow air into areas its not suppose to go.....double, and/or triple check the head assembly for leaks....Mix up a soapy solution and check for leaks under air pressure, and repair any you find.....(Note: just be cautious about the amount of force used when tightening parts that have tiny threads....parts need to be "snug" but not "torqued down" so to speak.....Use a thread sealer if needed(Teflon tape, bee's wax,)....Make really sure the head assembly and fluid tip are free of any dried paint or debri left from previous cleanings.....I've had bits of paper towels and cotton from Q-tips end up inside the head assembly and caused problems. I've got a Peak X3 and while its not exactly a top of the line model it should perform pretty good for lure painting.....check out the X5 or the C5 next time and I think you'll find them to be a step up in quality over the X3.....Plus, you'll like the chrome finish over the black powdercoated one...at least I do, but I have an airbrush in my hands ALOT, so the way it feels is a big deal at the end of the day...lol.

The pearls you show are .004 in size and will shoot thru most airbrushes.....Anything with a larger .3 tip or larger should work fine....I've used their pearls several times and they spray fine thru my Iwata Eclipse, Peak X5, and my Paasche with a #3 tip.....A litte powdered pearl can go along way, so you'll have to play with it to see what effects you get.

http://www.paintwithpearl.com/flakes/silverholo/silverholo.htm

I personally think if you've got some decent ventilation your probably ok, but if not you'd be wise to use some sort of resperator.....I use to airbrush alot of tee shirts in my garage with no ventilation what so ever, and although I never noticed any health issues, I did notice all the pretty colors when I'd blow my nose.....I figure its probably not a good thing to have all that paint in my lungs, so I built a simple exhaust setup and have been using something to vent away fumes for the past 25+ years....the only time I now use a mask is when I shoot with a mini or full size spray gun and always when spraying clear coat.

Guys, if you want to use misc household products to modify your paints, just remember that everything you atomize thru your airbrush and put into the air, you have a chance of breathing into your lungs.....its bad enough to fill your lungs with acrylic paint overspray, but when you start modifying paints with other products and breathing those it could be a bad thing.....So if your gonna do stuff like that, please make sure you have good ventilation and wear a good resperator.

So far I have not used any brand of paint or clear that I can honestly say I didn't like it....To this point they've all worked good for me and any problems I had were result in operator error and not the products fault. My favorites that don't break the bank, are, Matrix...Omni...Nason...5Star Xtreme series.......In the more costly class, I use and love House of Kolor, and PPG's concept line....Thats pretty much the only brands i've had much dealings with. For the record, Omni is PPG's low end paint, and Omni is Duponts....both are decent products....Matrix is a really good clear and their MS42 is a great product I've used on several motorcycles and dozens of helmets...Its a 2:1 clear that reminds me of using the much more expensive PPG Concept series clear, but for alot less money. So far most of what I've used on crankbaits has been the Omni and the Xtreme from 5Star....both were 4:1 clears and something like $65 per gallon which includes the catalyst.

Sorry, I didn't mean your gun was hvlp, I ment mine was....lol. If yours has a quart sized cup then its probably a full size paint gun and not a "mini".....Still doesn't mean you couldn't shoot clear thru it, but it wouldn't be worth while unless you were clearing ALOT of lures....but even then, Its gonna be overkill. Nuthin wrong with idiot-proof tools.....those the best kinds....lol

Matt, for $20 its worth trying.....chances are it'll work fine....My experience with cheap guns has actually be pretty good....they might not have a uniform spray pattern and might not atomize the paint as well as their more expensive counterparts, but for those of us on a budget they can fill the bill so to speak....lol....I assume you've got a decent size compressor to power it? Let us know how it works for ya.

Mark, I guessing the one you've got is the old standby known by the old time painters as a "detail or jam gun". They are usually a siphon feed gun that has a slender aluminum cup hangin below it and a long flat trigger on top....Is that correct? If so thats basicly the same thing i'm talking about,only mines gravity feed with its paint cup located on top of the gun, and is whats known as an HVLP gun (high volume, low pressure). I have used the old jam guns on many projects over the years....most are really good little paint guns.

Actually the gun I purchased was made by "Astro".....I'm sure you can find several other venues online that sell their paint guns.....I'm not sure which model I've got, but its considered a "mini hvlp".......They are all copies of the "Sata minijet"....Not Iwata as I previously mentioned...sorry.

I've shot a 4:1 clear thru my Eclipse with a 3.5mm nozzle, but its not really up for the job......Yes, you should use a uro reducer to thin your clearcoat if needed....depending on the brand clear, some require a "reactive reducer"....but most need a catalyst and a reducer, and some just use catalyst and no reducer....check with your mfg....In a pinch I've used regular lacquer thinner as a reducer without problem..."knock on wood"....lol. For most of my small jobs I use a "Iwata Minijet knockoff", from Harbor freight....its just a small gravity feed touch up gun with a 1.2 tip, that works great for shooting basecoat or clearcoats.....I think it cost me less then $50.....I even use it when clearing motorcycle parts and helmets.

I use lacquer thinner for all my washups and I've never had a contamination issue with water based paints......I suggest using the biggest tip airbrush you have, as most automotive clears are very thick and need a large tip to spray well.....however a 2:1 clear may still be very difficult to spray thru an airbrush, while a 4:1 clear is much thinner and sprays easier thru the small tips.....I've sprayed 4:1 thru .3 tips, but it works better with a .5....any bigger and you should be using a small touch up gun.....If I was clearing more then 2-3 baits at a time i'd probably use a touch up gun anyway...faster and easier. And, "no" I've never had an airbrush dedicated to clear coat....Not even my big guns....they all get used for everything and cleaned up afterward...never had an issue.

Ok...The brass nozzle is just sitting in a tapered hole, and is simply stuck with dried paint and the fact its probably not taken apart very often.....All you need to do is grab the nozzle firmly between your thumb and forefinger and try to rock it back and forth....That might take a little force, but it should break loose and pull right out.....Now....from what I see in your photo, you should go ahead and replace the nozzle while your at it....Notice how the tip of it is flared out?....Thats not suppose to look like that....its should be the same taper all the way to the end of the tip....once they start to flare out they'll eventually split and give you all kinds of "splattering" problems and even spraying to one side, and you can usually forget detail work when using a worn tip like that....Fortunately those style nozzles are inexpensive and a cheap repair. By the way....I noticed that airbrush has a rubber o-ring around the head assembly treads so it usually never leaks air in that area, so you can disregard my earlier advise about teflon tape and bee's wax....you normally don't need it on threads that have an o-ring seal. I use lacquer thinner for all my washups.....Sticky triggers can mean it just needs cleaning further into the brush,and on occasion a drop of lube into the air valve where the hose attaches is needed to fix the problem.....I use airbrush lube or a touch of glycerin on all the trigger parts that rub against each other....it cuts down wear and makes the action smoother.

Please do......Sometimes that helps diagnose problems.

The only thing I'd add is to make sure the head assembly does not leak air around the threads once its reassembled.....air leaks cause all kinds of inconsistancy problems when spraying.....a little soapy solution on the treaded areas while pressing the trigger will reveal any leaks.....fix the leaks with either teflon tape or bee's wax.

I've had a horrible couple of weeks and needed a good laugh......Thank you....that was perfect.

I use ALOT of Xacto blades in the work I do, and i've experienced some of the same issues you describe......Alot of custom painters and artists I know have switched to Excel blades....Ya might give them a try next time. http://excelhobbyblades.com/